Taiwan to Buy French Jets, Radio Says

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Taiwanese government, already buying F-16 fighters from the United States, will soon sign a contract to buy 60 Mirage 2000 jet fighters from France for about $2.6 billion, the island’s state-funded radio said Saturday.

Quoting unnamed sources, the Broadcasting Corp. of China said the jet’s maker, Dassault Aviation, had agreed to cut its original price of $54 million per jet by 20%.

The radio said the contract would be signed in the near future but gave no further details.

A Taiwanese Defense Ministry spokesman, asked Friday about a similar report by the semiofficial Central News Agency, declined to comment.

Taiwan has been discussing a purchase of Mirages from France for many months, but the French government, under pressure from China to block the sale, has not yet said whether it would approve a deal.

President Bush announced Wednesday that he had approved the sale of up to 150 F-16 jet fighters to Taiwan in a deal worth up to $6 billion.

China, which has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the end of the civil war in 1949, accused Bush of breaking an agreement not to sell advanced arms to Taipei.